So This is the End of the World
by Carnivore
Summary: Voldemort amassed an army of the undead ten years ago. Thousands have died, more will die eventually, and in the stronghold that was once Hogsmeade, three men are trying to save the world.
1. Prologue

It was, by all accounts, a miracle. This had never happened before, and likely would never happen again, but it had happened, and that was what counted.

The Ministry of Magic was in ruins. Nobody had set foot in the building since November of 1996, nearly 10 years ago. But tonight, through some hiccough of fate, there was now an unconscious man lying on the floor. A man that the Wizarding world knew was long dead.

A waking grunt echoed across the room as one man stirred back to consciousness. He eyes slowing as he recalled exactly where he was. Something about… Voldemort… Death Eaters… Bellatrix… Harry…Harry!

Sirius Black sat straight up, suddenly everything thing rushing back to him.

"HARRY!" He screamed, jumping to his feet. "Harry! Where are you?" he yelled again, looking about wildly. A number of thought came rushing to him, about what horrible fate had befallen his godson. Was he dead? Had Voldemort taken him? Sirius panted and tried his hardest not to panic, and failed miserably. Steeling his nerves, Sirius started to run, prepared to face whatever evils waited him outside, but before he could, he felt a familiar sound not too far away.

The Veil.

His heart pounding against his ribs, Sirius slowing walked forward to the fluttering curtain. He remembered. Bellatrix had surprised him, and he had fallen... Through the veil. But if that was the case, he would be dead. And he was most certainly alive… Wasn't he?

Before Sirius could continue with his thoughts, however, a woman's voice interrupted him.

"Oh, are you awake? Very good, I suppose I was starting to become a bit worried."

Sirius looked quickly back, his hand at his side, reaching for his wand. Standing up near the top tier of benches was a woman that Sirius thought looked somewhat familiar. She had a kind face and long, straggly, blond hair. Large, unblinking, brown eyes watched him as though they were having tea, rather than having met moments ago.

Sirius blinked, slightly unnerved. "Er, hello? Who are you?" he asked, lowering his wand.

She smiled at him, "Oh, my apologies. My name is Stella, and you are Sirius Back."

Sirius blinked again, in surprise. "That's right… Why aren't you terrified of me? Aren't you worried I'll try to kill you?"

Stella smiled at him, "That's ridiculous. In any event, your friends will we back in a few minutes. I believe they went to find some Floo powder."

She suddenly looked past his shoulder the doorway behind him.

"Oh, and here they are!"

Sirius turned around and his heart nearly stopped beating.

James Potter smiled down at him, "Hey mate. What's up?"


	2. Rememberances

This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Hogsmeade Village was once a joyous town, where teenagers from Hogwarts School would come to relax on weekends. Though the picture remained in the current inhabitant's minds, it was very different from the view of now. The buildings had grown into disrepair or had collapsed during the fighting. Surrounding the village was a grey, rock wall, reinforced by magic, and nearly impenetrable.

It was the _nearly_ that bothered Remus Lupin.

'_Another battle, another death..._' Remus thought, as he watched the body being sent into the flames to be cremated. Remus hung his head, his grey hair slipping into his eyes. Ten years… Ten long years had passed since Harry Potter had gone into the Department of Mysteries, ten years since Sirius Black had fallen through the Veil, and died, and ten years since Lord Voldemort had amassed an army of the undead that was currently in the process of conquering the world. The bodies of the dead had to be cremated. If they weren't, Voldemort would… Remus shook his head. He didn't want to think about what Voldemort would do.

The ashes were being collected now. The words 'Terry Boot: Ravenclaw, 1980 – 2006' were carved into a stone urn, soon to be buried under a marker at the makeshift cemetery.

Remus buried his face in hand and massaged his forehead, wishing, yet again, for time to go backwards, back to when his life was as free and happy as it used to be.

A hand clapped on Remus's shoulder, startling him out of his daydreaming.

"Alright there, Remus?"

Remus turned back to look at Kingsley, former Auror. The years of battle against Voldemort's army had taken its toll on him as well. A long deep scar was drawn horizontally across his face, and his neck and arms were covered with smaller scars and curse marks.

Remus nodded, "Yes… I'm fine. Just mourning and reminiscing."

Kingsley smiled grimly and closed his eyes.

"I understand. It's been hard these past years. Harder since Minerva went…"

Remus nodded sadly, remembering Minerva McGonagall. She had truly been a Gryffindor until the end, when she had been taken down by a hoard of living skeletons.

The village had started with nearly 800 people, but that was ten years ago. The number had lowly dwindled to only 200 hundred through the years fighting against thousands of Zombies, Living Skeletons, Death Eaters-turned-Liches, vampires, and Crypt-Sifters.

Remus shuddered involuntarily at the thought of Crypt-Sifters. They were horrible creatures, ones that by no means should exist in the world. Not that Voldemort cared, of course; he had them under his control.

Bizarre insect-like creature with grotesque leathery wings, covered in a scaly hide with dozens of curled and pointed appendages, they were the creatures that turned humans into Living-Skeletons. They would swallow you whole and your flesh would dissolve, leaving you simply a mindless, fleshless minion, infused with dark magic and unable to do otherwise but follow Voldemort's orders. Still, the Crypt-Sifters were only animals, summoned away from their home and forced under Voldemort's control.

The only way to defend yourself against a Crypt-Sifter was to cast a Patronus. It would flee from a single Patronus, but if several attacked a Crypt-Sifter, the Crypt-Sifter would likely be destroyed.

"You sure you're alright?" Kingsley asked, concerned.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine." Remus answered, waving his hand dismissively, "Terry Boot was an excellent student, even among Ravenclaws. He will truly be missed."

Kingsley frowned, "Well, if you're sure... I'll see you later then."

Kingsley walked off towards the former home of Gladrag's, leaving Remus alone to pace the town, like he did every day.

He smiled as he passed by Honeydukes, remembering his school days coming to Hogsmeade with his friends and buying as much chocolate as they could carry. The area around Honeydukes was still a relatively happy place. Another generation of Weasleys had been born and the children were a constant source of laughter, particularly from Ron and Hermione's young children, Arthur and Charlie, named in memory of two of the deceased.

Red-Haired and freckled like every generation of Weasley, Arthur and Charlie were mischief-makers to rival Fred and George, or even Sirius and James. But unlike Sirius and James, Arthur and Charlie knew when to stop.

Remus froze, memories of the Marauders flooding back to him. Shaking his to head to loose the thoughts from his mind, he wrenched open the door to Honeydukes and stepped inside.

Harry Potter and Ron Weasley were sitting across from each other at an old wooden table, totally absorbed in a game of chess.

Remus bent over Harry's shoulder and looked at the board.

"Sorry, Harry. Looks like you're doomed."

Harry looked up and grinned at him.

"Nah, I'm just lulling him into a false sense of security, before I crush his hopes and dreams in a horrible smattering of wood and… whatever the hell these chess pieces are made of."

The pieces on Ron's side of the board whispered to each other in worried tones about the supposedly impending chess-pocalypse.

Ron rolled his eyes at the pieces before turning his attention to Remus.

"Saw you at the cremation. You doing alright?"

Remus laughed slightly, "You're not the first to ask me that, you know. Everybody's thinking I'm so delicate, but after ten years of this shit, I've gotten rather desensitized to it. But Terry was a good man and an invaluable asset to us."

Ron nodded in agreement, "He was in the DA, but other than that we never really spoke, even after we holed up here."

"Yeah..." Remus replied, "He was brilliant at shield charms."

Harry smiled a bit, "Can't count home many times he saved our backsides with one of those."

They were silent for a few moments, all lost in thought.

A shrill whistle from outside snapped them out of their trances.

Harry cast a glance at the window, "Probably just a few rogue Zombies. If we hear any more alerts, we'll go out there."

Remus nodded, "Right." He turned to the door, but turned back, "Also, have you seen –"

"He's in the cemetery."

Remus nodded again and left Honeydukes, and began heading towards the edge of town, to where they buried the remains of the dead.

The cemetery was against one of the walls of Hogsmeade, past The Hog's Head. Markers make of think slabs of stone decorated the shallow hill where the ashes of the deceased were buried.

In the light of the setting sun, the man standing atop the hill amid the graves was a mere silhouette. He stood like the figure of Death itself, a long black cloak waving in the wind and a scythe resting on his shoulder.

Remus approached the man from behind.

"Er, hi? You in there?"

There was no answer.

Rolling his eyes, Remus grabbed the man's long black ponytail and sharply pulled.

"YEARGH!"

Severus Snape snarled and turned around to face Remus, dropping the scythe off his shoulder.

"Was that _really_ necessary?" He asked wincing and rubbing the back of his head,

Remus grinned, "You were zoned out again, and I needed to talk to you."

Severus scowled, "You could have tapped me on the shoulder."

"That doesn't work. We have to snap you out of those trances somehow, and unless you fancy getting a swift kick to the balls, stop complaining."

Severus just shrugged and crossed his arms, "What is that you want to talk to me about?" He asked, watching him through one open eye, the other was half-closed by a thick scar that ran vertically over his eye.

Remus shuddered slightly; remembering the fight Severus had received the injury in. It had been 10 years ago, when they first were attacked. A Crypt-Sifter had been after a group of students. Severus and Remus distracted it, goading the Crypt-Sifter into coming after them instead.

It had.

Hexes and stunning spells bounced right off it, and they were forced into a physical fight. One of its claws had ripped upwards across Severus face, and then grasped onto his left arm with its mouth. Remus could still remember the unearthly snarl of pain that came from Severus when the creature had bitten down. Remus then jumped at the creature, and jammed his hand into its eyes. Causing it to let go of Severus's arm, and flee into the night.

The flesh was falling away from Severus's arm like sand, leaving only its skeletal structure remaining, but he had taken no notice. Remus had never once seen Severus so angry, and it was not something he wished to see again. Like Dumbledore, Remus felt the rage and power coming off Severus in waves. Then Severus ran after it. He had come back minutes later, covered in the creature's purple blood and dragging its head behind him.

Severus then collapsed against a tree, closed his eyes, and passed out.

Since then, Severus had mostly kept his left arm covered in an arm piece off a suit of wizard's amour, because, he said "Much as I enjoy scaring children so much that they run off crying, the continuous sound of shrieking does tend to grate on one's nerves after a while."

"What is that you want to talk to me about?" Severus asked again.

"Well," Remus started, his mind having come back to the present, "I actually came to discuss the timeframe we have between attacks, and what we can do in the meantime."

Severus nodded, "I was actually thinking about that. I think it may be possible to get the books from Hogwarts."

Remus froze, "Are you kidding? That's suicide. The castle is full of the Undead!"

"I know. But we have a passage into the castle onto the grounds that they don't know about."

"If you're talking about the one-eyed witch, they know about that, remember? We collapsed the tunnel."

"Yes," Severus agreed, "But aren't there passages that were collapsed before you went to Hogwarts? Ones that weren't usable because they were blocked up?"

Remus paused, "So what you're saying is that we go searching about Hogsmeade, looking for a passage on the off chance it will lead into the castle, and then attempt to steal all the books in the library?"

Severus paused, swinging his scythe up on his shoulder again; "Actually, hearing it out loud now, it's not a great plan."

"It's really not. I thought you were smarter that that, Severus."

Severus sighed, and began walking down the hill, "I'm just grasping at straws, here. It's a miracle we've survived this long. Ten fucking years, we've been at this, and we've made hardly any headway. I'm not sure how much longer we're going to last."

"I know. It's hard to believe there were so many of us in the beginning, and now we've only got one quarter of that amount still alive."

There was a silence between them as they walked.

"We need Black." Severus said suddenly.

Remus gave him a strange look, "What?"

"We need Black, we need the Potters, we need the Longbottoms, we just need as much help as we can get, and they were the best."

"Never thought I'd hear you talking about James and Sirius that way. I thought you hated them."

"I did. I still do, a little bit, but I'm too old and tired to nurse my grudges anymore."

Remus laughed a little, "You're not that old."

Severus smirked, "Well, not nearly as old as you."

"Hey, I'm only 3 months older than you!"

"Sure, old man, whatever you say…"

Remus reached behind Severus back and gave his ponytail a sharp pull.

"Ow! Stop doing that, you fucker."

"Prick." Remus retorted.

"Fleabag"

"Greasy git."

Severus reached up and smacked Lupin upside the head.

Remus smiled and rubbed the back of his head, "You know, one of these days, we're going to give each other brain dam-"

A piercing whistle rang through the air and red sparks shot up from the main gate.

Remus and Severus both bolted towards the gate.


End file.
